David Cone’s right arm – the same arm that had been cut open just three years ago to repair an aneurysm – reached back to throw his 88th and final pitch yesterday, the pitch that would put him into history. And the instant the ball jumped off Orlando Cabrera’s bat, Cone knew perfection was his.

Even before Cabrera’s foul popup had fallen into third baseman Scott Brosius’ glove, Cone’s hands had covered his disbelieving eyes and his knees sank to the Yankee Stadium grass. Catcher Joe Girardi squeezed Cone in a bear-hug, and the 36-year-old ace, who had already reached almost every milestone an active pitcher could dream of, finally had the one that had eluded him – a perfect game.

Twenty-seven up. Twenty-seven down. Ten strikeouts. And the only numbers that truly mattered, zeros across for the Montreal Expos.

And as Cone slumped to the ground, the 41,930 fans in the Stadium for Yogi Berra Day, the same fans who had stood and cheered wildly the entire ninth inning, suddenly roared their approval, not of the Yankees’ 6-0 win over hapless Montreal, but of the 16th perfect game in major-league history.

“I’ll never forget this day,” said Cone (10-4), who threw the third perfect game in Yankee history to etch his name in the Bomber pantheon. “It just built to a crescendo in the ninth. Every time I came out to warm up there were standing ovations. You can’t help but feel the emotions of the crowd. I could feel my heart pumping through my uniform.

“When I saw the popup coming down, I just dropped to my knees in disbelief. I put [Girardi] in a bear hug, and I didn’t want to let go. What an honor. All the Yankee legends here today – Don Larsen, Yogi Berra. It makes you stop and think of the Yankee magic and the mystique of this ballpark. You can’t help but get caught up in it.”

Larsen – who tossed a perfect game against the Dodgers in the World Series – threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Berra, his batterymate in that historic 1956 game.

Larsen wished Cone luck before the ceremonial pitch, but Cone didn’t need it – his stuff was enough. His command was flawless, his fastball biting the outside corner, his slider unhittable.

Cone – who had come close with three-one-hitters – had talked openly talking about this milestone. He sat next to David Wells in the dugout to calm his friend during Wells’ perfect game last May 18. And Cone remembers listening to Doc Gooden’s May 14, 1996 no-hitter on the radio while bedridden at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

“I was laying in a hospital bed, recovering from my aneurysm. Then I saw [Wells] get carried off last year. And I thought maybe this is the year I can do something special. I thought this could be my last chance,” said Cone, who had thrown seven no-hit innings at Oakland in his first post-aneurysm start.

“When you look at a lot of my MRIs and X-rays, they don’t look so good. But MRIs and medical reports only tell you so much. There’s a lot more to it than MRIs and medical reports.”

MRIs certainly couldn’t measure his heart yesterday, or predict the way he exposed Montreal’s young hitters. And the Bombers backed him with five runs in the second.

Ricky Ledee took Javier Vazquez (2-5) 415 feet into the upper deck in right for a 2-0 lead. Then, after Vazquez hit Brosius, Girardi plated him with a double to center. Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch walked, and Derek Jeter homered to left for a 5-0 lead.

Meanwhile, one would’ve been enough for Cone. Even after a 33-minute rain delay in the bottom of the third, he needed just seven pitches to get out of the fourth.

He didn’t run a single three-ball count, and only reached two balls three times. When he fell behind Jose Vidro 2-0 in the eighth and Vidro smacked his fastball back up the middle, Knoblauch ranged to his right to snare it. And Knoblauch – who has 16 errors – pivoted and snapped a perfect throw to Tino Martinez at first.

“You’re just thinking about diving a saving a hit,” said Knoblauch. “But things happen so quickly. You just react.”

His reactions saved Cone, as did Paul O’Neill’s diving catch on Terry’s Jones’ fly ball in the first and Ledee charging in on Ryan McGuire’s bloop to left, snaring it with a snow-cone catch for the second out of the ninth.

And, with the crowd producing noise usually reserved for runways and rock concerts, Cone got Cabrera to pop to step into history.

“It was a wonderful day. It just doesn’t surprise you that on Yogi Berra Day there’d be a perfect game pitched,” said manager Joe Torre. “If you go back to ’96, where he was with the aneurysm, not knowing if he’d ever be able to play again, then to go out and start the second half to pitch a perfect game, that’s pretty incredible.”